1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern forming method, a device, a method of manufacture thereof, an electro-optical apparatus, and electronic apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
As a method of forming a wiring pattern used for electronic circuits, integrated circuits, or the like, for example, a photolithography method has been used. This photolithography method requires large scale equipment such as vacuum apparatus and complicated steps. Moreover, the efficiency of using material is only a few percent, and hence most of the material is wasted, resulting in high manufacturing cost.
With respect to this, as shown for example in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H11-274671, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2000-216330, a method has been proposed where a pattern is formed on a substrate using a droplet discharge method being a so called inkjet method, in which a liquid material is discharged from a droplet discharge head in the form of droplet. In this method, a liquid material for patterning (functional liquid) is directly disposed in a pattern on the substrate, and then converted into the pattern by heat treatment or laser radiation. According to this method, the merits are such that photolithography becomes unnecessary, the process can be greatly simplified, and the amount of raw material used is less.
Recently, densification of circuits for configuring devices has been advancing, and for example for the wiring there has been a demanded for this to be made finer with a thinner line. In the pattern forming method using the abovementioned droplet discharge method, since the discharged droplet spreads out on the substrate after landing, it has been difficult to stably form a fine pattern.
Particularly, in the case where the pattern becomes a conductive film, the liquid is trapped (bulged) due to the spread of the droplet, causing concern of defects such as disconnection or short-circuit.
Moreover, another technique has been proposed for forming wiring having a narrower width than the diameter of in flight functional liquid discharged by the droplet discharge method. In such a technique, in a state where the surface of banks sectioning the wiring forming region is made repellent, the functional liquid is discharged toward the wiring forming region, so that, even in the case where the functional liquid is partially discharged on the top surface of the banks, all of the functional liquid flows into the wiring forming region.
However, recently, it has been found that if the functional liquid partially contacts with the top surface of the bank, a fine residue remains on the top surface of the bank. For example, in the case where the functional liquid is conductive, the residue also becomes conductive. Therefore, if the residue remains as described above, there is concern that the characteristic of the wiring itself and the characteristic of a device using this wiring may be changed.
The present invention takes the above problems into consideration with the object of providing a pattern forming method, a device, a method of manufacture thereof, an electro-optical apparatus, and an electronic apparatus, in which a thin linear pattern can be accurately and stably formed.